Secrets of the Reverted Elixir 还丹秘诀养赤子神方

Recorded by Xu Mingdao, a Taoist priest of Xishan during the Song Dynasty.

Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Methods Category of the The Dongzhen Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).

A short preface by the author precedes the text. He claims that during the Chunxi reign period (1174~1189 CE), he encountered the true master Peng Mengqu at Tongbai Mountain, knelt to receive the Dao of the Golden Fluid Return Elixir, and thus recorded it to compile this book.

Secrets of the Reverted Elixir

The work elaborates on the secret essentials of Internal Alchemy (Neidan) cultivation, divided into sections such as Spirit Chamber, Water Clock (for timing), Sundial (for fire regulation), Pursuing the Two Qi, Uniting the Three Natures, Gathering the Five Elements, Advancing Fire, Warming Water, Transcending the Embryo, and Spiritual Transmutation.

Its theories integrate Chan Buddhism’s methods of forgetting realms and sudden enlightenment with Taoism’s techniques of wholehearted concentration on the One, advocating the combined cultivation of nature (xing) and life (ming). It regards primal essence, primal Qi, and primal spirit as the Three Natures, the area between the heart and kidneys as the Spirit Chamber, and the Two Qi (Yin and Yang) as well as metal and wood as the mechanisms of fire and water.

Appended at the end of the work is a lineage of masters and disciples: Zhang Tiangang, Peng Mengqu, Xiao Yingsou, Xu Mingdao, and Lin Yuanding. Among them, both Zhang and Peng were from Shu (Sichuan region), and their alchemical method has ideological connections with Peng Xiao, He Changyi, and others.